Idea for promotion: Zakopane – ethnic, creative and avant-garde
Commentary to assumptions from Promotional strategy of the brand Zakopane created by AGERON Polska.
Zakopane has promotional strategy ready for the years 2013-2020. It assumes development of the city as the touristic centre under three main slogans: Zakopane – ethnic, creative and avant-garde. To put it simply it means that the city under Giewont will try to win over less affluent tourists as well as those with more sophisticated taste and more money in their wallet. Formulating the strategy took a year and cost 120,000 zloty. It was done by external company Ageron. – We turned to Ageron after we organized a couple of meetings with entrepreneurs within Tatra Economic Chamber (TIG). During discussions there were a lot of ideas, but no coherence. We came to conclusion that we can’t handle it ourselves – says Agata Wojtowicz, director of TIG.
Company that took on this challenge first carried out deep market research. –Surveys were carried out among tourists who were resting in Zakopane, Poles who have never visited the region and inhabitants of the city themselves. Research was carried out abroad as well – says Andrzej Kawecki, director of the Office for Promotion. After analyzing surveys it turned out that Zakopane is mainly associated with mountains, skiing and oscypek. Issues with logistics seemed to carry very little importance. Among the biggest rivals there are Slovakia, Krynica-Zdroj, Wisla and Szklarska Poreba. According to Agata Wojtowicz it is a good sign that Zakopane is still perceived as an important skiing resort.
According to the company which formulated the strategy, in the nearest years Zakopane should base its promotional activities on three pillars – Creative Zakopane, Ethnic Zakopane and Avant-garde Zakopane. These offers combined together are supposed to provide entertainment, adrenaline and education.
(…) According to specialists who worked on the city’s strategy, Zakopane should create thematic routes in the city such as Interwar Zakopane, Pope’s route, Culinary route, Zakopane’s style route or Zakopane for bad weather.
Office for Promotion and Tatra Economic Chamber intend to meet entrepreneurs and local politicians from Zakopane to present and consult ideas of this strategy. – I think that such action plan is very much needed. Until now many people have been trying to do similar things, but moving a bit in darkness – underlines Dariusz Galica, entrepreneur from Zakopane. – I like especially idea of thematic routes in Zakopane. However, the most important thing is that we will finally start talking with each other about the issue of attracting tourists to our city.
Source: Gazeta Krakowska 14/11/2012
